Re: making more room in root partition for distribution upgrade

Subject: Re: making more room in root partition for distribution upgrade

On Thu, 17 May 2018 18:06:46 -0500
Mark Copper <mcopper@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> This must be a FAQ. But there appear to be two ways forward.
>
> 1. Back-up /home, enlarge / partition, copy back-up back to new,
> smaller /home partition (because /home will then start on a different
> cylinder so data will be lost).
>
> or
>
> 2. Carve out a new partition for /usr at end of disk which will free
> up over 6 gb.
>
> What have other people done?
>
> Thanks.
More than 20 years ago I began saving personal files to a different partition than the OS.
I've used this system for Windows (when I started) and for more flavors of Linux than I can remember. I did this so I could wipe the root partition and reinstall without destroying my personal files.
I call it "files" and mount it on /home/ntrfug/Documents at boot.
I also have a 100 Gb partition for "music", mounted at boot to /home/ntrfug/Music.
Everything else goes on single 22 Gb partition, now labeled "Stretch" (49% occupied).
I use KDE with a fair but not extensive portfolio of software, but which include LyX, which requires LaTeX and TeX (that's a lot of dependency).
I backup the root partition before I reinstall, and after installation move settings for individual applications to the new home directory.
For example I started using sylpheed for email when accounts and preferences were saved in regular text files. Later it morphed to claws-mail and migrated to xml preferences that I could not re-create to save my life. Fortunately I just moved the /home/ntrfug/.config/claws-mail directory to my new system and it came up with all my preferences and accounts the first time I started. (I save my email folders in /home/ntrfug/files/Mail).
I use VirtualBox, and virtual machines live in /home/ntrfug/files/virtualbox.